Category Archives: Travel Guides
The Fabulists: The World`s New Rulers, Their Myths and the Struggle Against Them
What do Rodrigo Duterte, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Aung San Suu Kyi have in common?Politicians around the world are weaving their own heroic fictions – the strongmen, the apparently enlightened, apparently liberal reformers, the smiling kings and autocrats, the proud defenders of bygone empires. Used properly, these stories can act as a glue
The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas
Christmas is around the corner…so too are all manner of spooky apparitions at the Essex Witch Museum Feisty Rosie Strange can`t seem to catch a break. The past always seems to come knocking in Adders Fork, forcing her and partner Sam Stone to investigate. In this collection of twelve short stories, Rosie and Sam are
The Power Game: The Monsarrat Series
Murder often comes with an easy scapegoat…When a boatman is murdered on a remote island off Van Diemen`s Land, the authorities want to blame a famous, and very inconvenient, political prisoner.Hugh Llewelyn Monsarrat and his trusty housekeeper, Mrs Mulrooney, are sent to remote Maria Island to solve the murder of corrupt tradesman Bart Harefield.They soon
The Truth About Fat: Why Obesity is Not that Simple
Most people try out diets just to see if they work. One friend cuts out sugar, a second cuts out fat. Another mumbles something about gut microbes. Even scientists still seem to be arguing about what causes obesity, so what hope is there for the rest of us?Anthony Warner, author of `The Angry Chef`, has
The Vacuum in the Dark
Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic FictionTwenty-six-year-old cleaner Mona has just had a bad break up with a boyfriend named Mr Disgusting (don`t ask…) But her plans for a fresh start go awry when she meets a new man, this one called Dark. He`s probably not ideal boyfriend material: a little bit
Little Eyes – Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020
Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020A visionary novel about our interconnected world, about the collision of horror and humanity, from the Man Booker Internaitonal Prize shortlisted master of the spine-tingling taleThey`ve infiltrated homes in Hong Kong, shops in Vancouver, the streets of Sierra Leone, town squares of Oaxaca, schools in Tel Aviv, bedrooms in
Manchester Happened
An ambitious and assured collection of short stories from the internationally acclaimed author of `Kintu`If there`s one thing the characters in Jennifer Makumbi`s stories know, it`s how to field a question.”Let me buy you a cup of tea…what are you doing in England?””Do these children of yours speak any Luganda?””Did you know that man Idi
Beyond the Sea
Chosen as a Book of the Year by Sebastian Barry, Martina Devlin and Peter CunninghamHector and Bolivar set sail from their South American fishing village on what they believe to be a routine expedition. But then a devastating storm casts them adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. With no means of contacting the
How We Disappeared – Longlisted for the Women`s Prize for Fiction 2020
Longlisted for the Women`s Prize for Fiction 2020Longlisted for the 2020 Walter Scott Prize for Historical FictionSingapore, 1942. As Japanese troops sweep down Malaysia and into Singapore, a village is ransacked. Only three survivors remain, one of them a tiny child.In a neighbouring village, seventeen-year-old Wang Di is bundled into the back of a troop
The Moneyless Man: A Year of Freeconomic Living
Imagine living for an entire year without money. Where do you live? What do you eat? How do you stay in touch with your friends and family?Former businessman Mark Boyle thought he`d give it a try. In a world of seasonal foods, solar panels, skill-swapping schemes, cuttlefish toothpaste, and compost toilets, Boyle puts the fun
In the Shadow of Wolves
Winner of the Georg Dehio Book Prize 2018The Second World War is drawing to a close, but the world is far from safe. Left to fend for themselves, women and children are forced out of their homes in East Prussia to make way for the advancing victors. As the Russian soldiers arrive, the women know
The Aviator
From award-winning author Eugene Vodolazkin comes this poignant story of memory, love and loss spanning twentieth-century RussiaA man wakes up in a hospital bed, with no idea who he is or how he came to be there. The only information the doctor shares with him is his name: Innokenty Petrovich Platonov.As memories slowly resurface, Innokenty
Pretend I`m Dead
Jen Beagin`s brilliant, off-beat and deeply moving novel introduces an unforgettable character, Mona – almost twenty-four, emotionally adrift and cleaning houses to get by. Volunteering for a needle-exchange programme, she falls for a regular she calls Mr Disgusting, who proceeds to break her heart in unimaginable ways.In search of healing, Mona decamps to Taos, New
The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between British and American English
`The first and perhaps only book on the relative merits of American and British English that is dominated by facts and analysis rather than nationalistic prejudice. For all its scholarship, this is also a funny and rollicking read.`The Economist, Books of the YearOnly an American would call autumn fall or refer to a perfectly good
Lala
A lyrical and moving Polish family saga set against the turbulent backdrop of twentieth-century EuropeLala has lived a dazzling life. Born in Poland just after the First World War and brought up to be a perfect example of her class and generation ‘“ tolerant, selfless and brave ‘“ Lala is an independent woman who has
No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria
Financial Times Book of the YearAward-winning journalist Rania Abouzeid presents reportage of unprecedented scope in this engaging, character-driven saga that exposes the secret dealings that armed and betrayed an uprising.Taking readers deep into Assad`s prisons, to clandestine meetings and to the highest levels of Islamic militancy, Abouzeid dissects the tangle of ideologies and allegiances that
Orchid & the Wasp
Orchids are liars.They use pheromones to lure wasps in to become unwitting pollinators. In nature, such exploitative systems are rare. In society, they are everywhere.Gael Foess is a heroine of mythic proportions. Raised in Dublin by single-minded, careerist parents, she learns from an early age how ideals and ambitions can be compromised. When her father
The Water Thief
From the award-winning author of Ishmael`s Oranges comes a searing novel with a profound moral conflict at its heart.When a heart attack kills his father, young architect Nick abandons his comfortable London life to volunteer abroad for a year – a last chance to prove himself, and atone for old sins.But in a remote village
The Parentations
Eighteenth-century London – the lives of the sisters Fitzgerald, Constance and Verity, become entwined with the nearby Fowler household, charged with providing safe harbour to a mysterious baby from far away.Camden, London, 2015, December 17th – the lives of the sisters Fitzgerald, Constance and Verity, are consumed by the wait for this boy, who may
The Baghdad Clock
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION 2018For fans of The Kite Runner comes this remarkable debut, the number one bestselling title in Iraq, Dubai and the UAEIt`s 1991 and the Gulf War is raging. Two girls, hiding in an air raid shelter, tell stories to keep the fear and the darkness at bay,
